Fishing and seafood industry groups are telling President Joe Biden that he shouldn’t create or expand marine national monuments during the final weeks of his administration, saying any such move “will be met by significant opposition.”
In a Nov. 18 letter, roughly 150 organizations and elected officials warned that “any action of this kind before January 20 would come at an especially difficult time” and “would further harm our sector, needlessly constraining fishing activity despite U.S. fisheries delivering enormous public benefits and complying with the most rigorous management system in the world.“
“Against this backdrop, the mere threat of Marine National Monuments creates harmful business uncertainty,” the industry groups wrote, adding that marine monument designations lack “rigorous impact review required by the normal rulemaking process,” resulting in outcomes that “more often prove ill-suited to the dynamic ocean management challenges that lie ahead.”
NOAA, which manages or co-manages the nation’s 1.2 million square miles of marine monuments, declined to comment on the letter.
